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The nation needs a grand bargain on debt next year

It’s a rare day when the editorial board of the Times-Union meets a speaker so informed, so sharp, on a subject.

David Walker is a modern Paul Revere, traveling the nation, warning about the debt.

The Jacksonville University graduate and former comptroller general of the United States is founder and CEO of Comeback America.

Walker is on a “$10 million a minute tour.”

“If the largest economy, the sole superpower, the country that has over 60 percent of the world’s global reserve currency, has a debt crisis, it will be a global depression, and nobody will be able to hide,” he said.

When?

“Only God knows when we might have a U.S. debt crisis and God’s not telling us,” Walker said. “But what we do know is that we’re not exempt from the laws of prudent finance. You can’t spend $1 trillion plus or more each year than you take in.”

But there isn’t much time.

If you look at total government debt in this country — federal, state, local and entitlements — the only European nation with a worse fiscal position is Greece, and we don’t want to go there, he said.

The American people get it, Walker says. When he talks to an audience, 99 percent of the people agree that the nation has a debt crisis and that Washington has failed us.

A grand bargainWalker also receives support for his six principles (see the adjacent box) and 76 percent support the individual reform elements.

Walker says a solution needs to come next year when there is not a presidential or congressional election.

“We need to have the president demonstrate extraordinary leadership, use the power of the bully pulpit to go directly to the American people with truth, tough choices and a framework for a way forward,” he said.

And the people have to pressure their leaders to reach this “grand bargain,” he said in a meeting Wednesday before the editorial board.

“We the people are responsible and accountable or what happens in this country,” Walker said. “We need to put pressure on Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate to work constructively with the president to achieve a grand bargain and hold them accountable if they fail.”

The solutions are there. The Simpson-Bolles plan is about 85 percent positive, Walker said. It includes broad proposals for tax reform and entitlement reform. But its revenue solutions might not be adequate. And it did little to combat health care costs, and that is a major driver of the nation’s fiscal crisis

Health care on a budgetAs Walker said, we’re the only major industrialized nation that doesn’t have a budget for health care.

“Nobody else is dumb enough to do that because they know it would bankrupt the nation,” he said. “Even Sweden, which has socialized medicine cradle to grave — which I’m not advocating — has a budget for health care.

“We’ve way over promised on health care, and the Affordable Care Act didn’t help. You can’t expand coverage for 30 million more people and expect to reduce cost.”

Walker says we need a level of universal health care that is appropriate, affordable and sustainable. It needs to be based on broad societal needs not unlimited individual wants, delivered through the private sector with options for choice and competition, paying more for outcomes than procedures.

“When you spend double per person and get below average results, the answer is not to throw money at it. That’s called insanity,” he said.

In short, America must rationalize its promises.

Walker says this grand bargain is possible. As this page wrote, Canada fixed its fiscal mess in the 1990s, and so has Australia, New Zealand and Sweden.